TO A SOUND CONVERSION 333 It pleased the great Creator of the world, to make three sorts of living creatures ; angels he made pure spirits without flesh, and therefore he made them only for heaven, and not to dwell upon earth. Brutes were made flesh ; and therefore they were made only for earth, and not for heaven. Man is of a middle nature, be- tween both ; as partaking both of flesh and spirit, and therefore he was made both for heaven and earth. But as his flesh is made to be but a servant to his spirit so is he made for earth but as his way to heaven ; and not that earth should be his home, or happiness. The blessed state which man was made for, was to behold the glorious majesty of the Lord, and to praise him among his holy angels ; and to love him, and be filled with his love for ever. And as this was the end which man was made for, so God gives him means fitted to at- tain it. These, means were principally two. First, the right inclination and disposition of the mind of man. Secondly, the right ordering of his life and practice. For the first, God suited the disposition of man to his end ; giving him such knowledge of God as was fit for his present state, and a heart inclined to God in holy love. But yet he did not confirm him in this condi- tion ; but having made him a free agent, he left him in the hands of his own free will. For the second, God did that which belonged to him ; that is, he gave man a perfect law, requiring him to continue in the love of God, and perfectly to obey him. By the wilful breach of this law, man did not only forfeit his hopes of ever- lasting life, but also turned his heart from God, and fix- ed it on these lower things ; and hereby blotted out the spiritual image of God from his soul. So that man did both fall short of the glory of God which was his end, and put himself out of the way by which he should have attained it and this both as to the frame of his heart, and of his life. The holy inclina- tion of his soul to God, he lost ; and instead of it he contracted an inclination to the pleasing of his 'flesh by earthly things ; growing strange to God, and ac- quainted with the creature ; and the course of his life was suited to the inclination of his heart ; he lived to
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